THEATER REVIEW

THEATER REVIEW; Literary Lions, Claws Bared

Published: December 13, 2002

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Mr. Hamlisch's songs, with lyrics by Craig Carnelia, are tuneful, jinglelike numbers that add little in period flavor or character definition. And some of them simply slow things down to no purpose. In one, the stars, portraying their childhood selves, dance with rag dolls. In another, Harry Groener, who portrays the men in both women's lives, does a solo about the thanklessness of his role.

As you've no doubt gathered, ''Imaginary Friends'' is not a two-character play. The full ensemble, which features the wonderful Anne Pitoniak, helps illustrate the heroines' exercises in self-justification. But it's Ms. Jones and Ms. Kurtz, two of the most engaging and protean actresses on the American stage, who give the evening what glow of vitality it has.

Both invariably find the postures to convey their characters at different points, from scrappy little-girlhood to soigné middle age. (The sociologically evocative costumes are by Robert Morgan.) And their easy, bickering camaraderie, which brings to mind Hope and Crosby, keeps the audience on their side.

Ms. Kurtz has more to work with, since Hellman was a natural-born expert on self-dramatization. And this actress translates her character's flashiness with details that flirt slyly with cartoonishness: that gravelly voice, that hair-trigger timing, those dismissive flicks of the hand.

The ever-luminous Ms. Jones -- who, unlike Ms. Kurtz, does indeed resemble the woman she portrays -- has been assigned the formidable task of scaling up to Broadway proportions a figure of patrician understatement. It's not surprising that she holds her own. But there's an intense naturalism in her portrayal that doesn't quite square with Ms. Kurtz's drolly drawn caricature.

It's not that either actress isn't doing her very best with what she's been given. But ultimately what they've been given are glossy paper dolls of parts. Though Ms. Ephron has obviously done her homework and borrowed copiously from the standard biographies and both characters' memoirs, she never makes the leap of imagination and empathy that would turn Hellman and McCarthy into women you have to care about.

In the play's conclusion, which evokes ''No Exit,'' McCarthy asks Hellman, ''What did we do to deserve each other?'' Hellman responds dryly, ''Everything, apparently.'' There's a strong implication that ''Imaginary Friends'' agrees with Hellman's answer, and there is little affection in such a judgment. For all the radiance of its leading ladies, ''Imaginary Friends'' never generates much heat.